22

Press Releases, vol. IX, p. 343

Statement15
by the Secretary of State at the Seventh International
Conference of American States, Montevideo, December 15, 1933

MR. CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE: I arise to say that the
Delegation of the United States of America is in the heartiest accord
with the very timely and vitally important resolution offered by the
able Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, Dr. Saavedra Lamas. The
beneficial benefits of this proposal on peace will be far-reaching.
Their stimulating influence will extend beyond this hemisphere and to
the uttermost parts of the earth. They will bring cheer and hope to the
struggling and discouraged forces of peace everywhere.

May I express what is in the mind of every delegate, that our grateful
appreciation of this outstanding service of Dr. Saavedra Lamas will most
appropriately climax a series of splendid services to the cause of peace
which he has rendered. Let me also thank the heads of each delegation
with whom I have conferred during past

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days for their prompt and most valuable cooperation in support of this proposal.

The passage of this resolution and the agreement to attach from 12 to 20
signatures of governments to the five peace pacts or agencies thus far
unsigned by them is not a mere mechanical operation. The real
significance is the deep and solemn spirit of peace which pervades the
minds and hearts of every delegate here and moves each to undertake a
wise and effective step to promote conditions of peace at this critical
stage. The adoption of this resolution and the agreement to sign these
five splendid peace instruments will thoroughly strengthen the peace
agencies of the 21 American states and make peace permanently secure in
this hemisphere. This wholesale affixing of signatures to five treaties
through conference action within itself thoroughly vindicates the policy
of international conference.16

I desire most heartily to second the motion to report this resolution
favorably. I desire also to say that the United States is ready to affix
its signature to the Argentine anti-war pact, and I venture at the same
time to express the earnest hope that representatives of all other
governments present will aid in a great service to peace by signifying
at this time their willingness to affix on behalf of their governments
their signatures on any of these five treaties which they have not yet
signed.

Universal peace has been the chief aim of civilization. Nations fail or
succeed according to their failure or success in this supreme
undertaking. I profoundly believe that the American nations during the
coming years will write a chapter of achievement in the advancement of
peace that will stand out in world history.

It is in these inspiring circumstances that I and my associates have
come to the Conference here in Montevideo. We come too for the reason
that the people and the Government of the United States feel the keenest
interest in this Conference and have the strongest

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desire to contribute to its success. We come because we share in common
the things that are vital to the entire material, moral, and spiritual
welfare of the people of this hemisphere and because the satisfactory
development of civilization itself in this Western World depends on
cooperative efforts by all the Americas. No other common aspiration
could so closely draw peoples together. We can have no other objective
than these. Our common hopes and responsibilities, chaperoned by common
sense and initiative, beckon to all of us. We sense a yearning here for
a spirit of fine cooperative endeavor. We know too that in this great
region the future possibilities of which no man dare calculate the world
is being given another chance to right itself. By pooling all our
resources in an unselfish spirit we shall undertake to meet the test of
service to ourselves and to humanity and make the most of the spacious
opportunities that lie ahead. We know when we survey our assets that we
have the foundations in this part of the world laid for the greatest
civilization of all the past--a civilization built upon the highest
moral, intellectual, and spiritual ideals.

Indeed, while older nations totter under the burden of outworn ideas,
cling to the decayed and cruel institution of war, and use precious
resources to feed cannon rather than hungry mouths, we stand ready to
carry on in the spirit of that application of the Golden Rule by which
we mean the true good will of the true good neighbor.

It is really a very old and universal though sometimes neglected rule of
conduct, this revitalized policy. It is, however, the real basis of that
political liberty for which your own great heroes fought and which is
our greatest common heritage. It is high time for the world to take new
heed of it and to restore its ancient and potent meaning.

I am gratified to say that I have already found much of this spirit
among the distinguished leaders with whom I have talked here in
Montevideo. They all keenly realize the crisis that has been thrust upon
the New World. The Old World looks hopefully in this direction, and we
must not disappoint that hope. Today Europe staggers under the load of
bristling armaments paid for out of treasuries depleted by the clogging
of trade channels. Our common ties with them redouble our desire to
offer our best in the molding of a new world order. We have the
opportunity and the duty to carry on. We have a belt of sanity on this
part of the globe. We are as one as to the objective we seek. We agree
that it is a forward-looking enterprise which brings us here, and we
must make it a forward-moving enterprise.

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Peace and economic rehabilitation must be our objective. The avoidance
of war must be our supreme purpose. Most gratifying is the practical
appeal which your leaders are making to bring about an end to the bloody
conflict between two of our sister republics, the one small and
remaining exception to our hopes and ideals for enduring peace in this
hemisphere. This is a blot on our civilization which we must erase. I
grant with all my heart that with the end of that conflict war as an
instrument for settling international disputes will have lost its last
foothold in this hemisphere.

In its own forward-looking policy the administration at Washington has
pledged itself, as I have said, to the policy of the good neighbor. As
President Roosevelt has defined the good neighbor, he "resolutely
respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of
others". We must think, we must speak, we must act this part.

I am safe in the statement that each of the American nations
whole-heartedly supports this doctrine--that every nation alike earnestly
favors the absolute independence, the unimpaired sovereignty, the
perfect equality, and the political integrity of each nation, large or
small, as they similarly oppose aggression in every sense of the word.

May I for a moment direct attention to the significance of this broad
policy as my country is steadily carrying it into effect under the
Roosevelt administration, the extent and nature of which should be
familiar to each of the nations here represented. My Government is doing
its utmost, with due regard to commitments made in the past, to end with
all possible speed engagements which have been set up by previous
circumstances. There are some engagements which can be removed more
speedily than others. In some instances disentanglement from obligations
of another era can only be brought about through the exercise of some
patience. The United States is determined that its new policy of the New
Deal--of enlightened liberalism--shall have full effect and shall be
recognized in its fullest import by its neighbors. The people of my
country strongly feel that the so-called right of conquest must forever
be banished from this hemisphere, and most of all they shun and reject
that so-called right for themselves. The New Deal indeed would be an
empty boast if it did not mean that.

Let us in the broad spirit of this revitalized policy make this the
beginning of a great new era, of a great renaissance in American
cooperative effort to promote our entire material, moral, and spiritual
affairs and to erect an edifice of peace that will forever endure. Let

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each American nation vie with the other in the practice of the policy of
the good neighbor. Let suspicion, misunderstanding, and prejudice be
banished from every mind and genuine friendship for and trust in each
other and a singleness of purpose to promote the welfare of all be
substituted. Let each nation welcome the closest scrutiny by the others
of the spirit and manner in which it carries out the policy of the good
neighbor. Let actions rather than mere words be the acid test of the
conduct and motives of each nation. Let each country demonstrate by its
every act and practice the sincerity of its purposes and the
unselfishness of its relationships as a neighbor.

It is in this spirit that the Government and the people of the United
States express their recognition of the common interests and common
aspirations of the American nations and join with them in a renewed
spirit of broad cooperation for the promotion of liberty under law of
peace, of justice, and of righteousness.